


My Chosen Queen, To Rule By My Side

by afteriwake



Series: Sherlolly Spring Fling - April/May 2018 [6]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Deja Vu, F/M, Fae Deals, Fae Sherlock Holmes, Faeries Made Them Do It, Fairy King Sherlock, Fairy Queen Molly, First Meetings, Getting to Know Each Other, Human Molly Hooper, Injured Sherlock, Kindness, Marriage, Moriarty Is A Dick, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Moriarty, Protective Sherlock, Protectiveness, Scarves, Ten Years Later, worried Molly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:26:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Ten years ago, Molly Hooper got lost in the forest near her brother's cottage trying to find her niece. She found the girl as well as an injured man who was more than he seemed. Now, Molly's niece is missing again and so Molly ventures into the forest once more to find her, with decidedly different results this time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thestarlitrose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thestarlitrose/gifts).



> _Yeeeeeears_ ago, when I first started writing Sherlock fanfic, I got a prompt from **Thestarlitrose** that went " _For your request on supernatural sherlolly, maybe a fae/fairy sherlock comes across molly on Samhain (Halloween) and decides he wants her for his own. I know there are certain ways fairies are supposed to be able to lure their victims. And on Samhain I believe the veils between world are easier to get through. It hasn’t been done to my knowledge and you could really use myth and lore to make it spooky. I hope that helps._ " It was recently claimed by **barpurplewrites** for Sherlolly Spring Fling and so I'm starting it finally. Hope you both enjoy!

**October 31st, 2007**

“ _You shouldn’t go into the forest when the veils are thin._ ”

She really should have listened, Molly thought to herself as she looked into the inky black to her left, and then the right. Here she was looking for her niece who had wandered off and as far as she could tell there wasn’t a single soul anywhere near her helping in the search. For that matter, she wasn’t even sure there were _animals_ this deep in. There was certainly no light from the moon or stars, even though the moon had been glowing brightly when she started her journey.

One that looked like it might end with her dying in this forest for all she knew.

Either that or she’d go crazy.

 _No_ , she thought to herself. She would find her niece, they would find their way out and go home to her brother’s cottage and she’d forget today was Halloween and her brother and his wife had been idiots to move next to such a damn spooky place.

She didn’t have much in the way of light, but Katie had given her a little laser pointer to amuse Toby with, and she had hooked it onto the keychain holding the keys to her flat and her car and her locker at the hospital. She _should_ have been in London, working, but her brother had asked her to come up north and have a talk with Katie, who had been acting strangely, and then when she arrived Katie was missing. The entire village was out looking, and there was no sign of her niece.

 _No sign of life anywhere else, either,_ she thought to herself while she dug around in the pockets of her trousers for the keychain. Finally, she found it and even in the dark she managed to turn on the laser pointer, and a thin beam of green light cut through the darkness. It wasn’t much at all, but she was surprised when a blue orb appeared in front of her, with another one in front of that, and then a third, and all the orbs illuminated a path.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” she said out loud. She could either travel down the path, see where it took her and hope it was somewhere safe, or stay put until daybreak. With the mottos of Alice in her head, she began to walk down the path.

As she took each step closer to an orb, suddenly it winked out and another one appeared further down the path. The practical side of her knew these were fairy lights most likely, and not the electric kind strung up in rooms or on a Christmas tree. No, these were the real deal and she should be very very careful wherever it was that they ended up leading.

Soon she was led to a clearing among the trees where the full moon shone down on the moss covered rocks and flower-dotted areas of grass. And in the center was Katie, sound asleep in a dress of finely woven gold and silver.

“Katie!” she called out, running past the last fairy light just as it blinked out to her niece. Katie was cold but there was still a faint heartbeat, and she knew she needed to warm her niece up. She shrugged out of the thick coat she wore and draped it over her niece, nearly covering her petite body.

That was when she heard the groan to the side.

She looked over and saw a man that appeared to be her own older age but also ethereally young, with cheekbones so sharp she was afraid she’d cut herself tending to the gashes there. As she got closer she saw his fine silver clothes were nearly torn to shreds and pale skin, as smooth as alabaster in uninjured places, was now riddled with ugly red marks. She saw he had one large and deep gash where the femoral artery would be, and she pulled her scarf off and used it as a tourniquet.

“The human,” the man said, his voice deep and velvety. “She is safe?”

“Cold and with barely a pulse, but alive,” Molly said, reaching to check his wrist for a pulse. “If I can get her to the village, I can take her to the nearest hospital for treatment for hypothermia.”

“Elf-sickness,” he said.

“What?”

“She has elf-sickness,” he replied. “She’s under the thrall of Moria...”

Molly shook her head and tightened the scarf around his wound. It all seemed so fantastic, but right now she had one man with serious injuries and a near-death niece to take care of. If the man said it was elf-sickness in his delirious state, she wasn’t going to argue. “Cure?”

“Wear a braid of mugwort around her neck or wrist for a year. Never take it off, or he’ll take her.”

Molly nodded. Mugwort...she may not admit it with her modern medical knowledge, but she was a scholar in herbal medicine, thanks to her grandmother. Had she not gone the route of being an oncologist, she may have tried medical research. She would know mugwort on sight and she would make damn sure her niece never took the braid off.

Only fools were afraid of the fantastic, and the Hoopers were not a family of fools.

The man had lapsed into silence, but soon another set of fairy lights popped into existence near where she had arrived at the clearing. She could dimly see and hear trees moving in the darkness, and she knew this was her way home. She hurried to Katie, picking the young girl up easily and carrying her towards the light. She cast one look back at the strange man, but then decided she had done what she could for his worst wound and Katie’s safety was her priority. With a determined step, she made her way along this dark path lit only by floating orbs and prayed she made it to safety for both their sakes.


	2. Chapter 2

**October 30th, 2017**

Molly dropped her flat keys in the bowl on the little table by her door and looked around. Strange. The flat was quiet, which was unusual when Katie had stayed home instead of exploring London. Katie had only been with her for nearly a month now, trying to see if there was any place in the city that would be a fit for her when she started uni next year. She wanted to be closer to her much idolized Auntie Molly, and follow in her footsteps by going into the medical field.

And Molly had been pleased as punch that this was happening, opening up her home for her niece to stay as long as possible.

Things had been well the first few weeks, but the closer it got to the ten year anniversary of the incident, the quieter Katie got and the louder the noise in the flat got. And Molly understood. For her, every October her dreams became sharper, more focused, and all involved that man she tended to in the woods.

The elf.

It had taken her time to admit that she had no idea what had happened to Katie when she wandered into the forest but she had insisted on Katie wearing both a braid of mugwort around her neck and wrist. Robbie and his wife were skeptical, but when one of the older women in the village confirmed it was elf-sickness and it was the only cure, they humored both of them. And Katie got better. Thrived, even, though she got quiet every year in October. So Molly had expected that this year as well, as it had happened the previous nine.

But this eerie silence was different.

She went to the kitchen to look and see if there was a note anywhere on the worktop or the refrigerator but nothing was anywhere that she could see. She walked into the guest bedroom that Katie was using but the bed was unmade, and that was unlike her niece. The room was always tidy and the bed was made soon after Katie woke up every day.

In fact, she didn’t even know if any of Katie’s clothes were gone. There were some items in the hamper she’d worn recently, and clothes hanging in the wardrobe Molly had in the room as well as folded in the matching chest of drawers, and Molly thought the only thing missing was Katie’s lace-trimmed satin nightgown. She couldn’t tell though because the room was...well, not quite a disaster but definitely messier than what Molly was used to seeing in her niece’s bedroom.

She walked quickly back to her handbag and pulled her mobile out, pressing the various buttons to get to her brother’s phone number. She pressed his contact and then put the phone to her ear. Robert answered on the third ring. “Hello, sister dear.”

“Robbie, did Katie go back to the village today?” Molly asked, skipping through their traditional greeting.

There were a few seconds of silence and Robbie sounding like he was talking to someone else. “No, Molls. Katie isn’t with you?”

Molly decided it might be best not to alarm him anymore and not tell him about the mess or the way the silence felt deafening compared to the noise she had become used to. “She may be out doing something for the holiday with friends. No need to worry. I just didn’t see a note.”

“Molly,” Robert said, his voice lower. “Is she acting...strange...again?”

“No more than she has in recent years,” she replied. There. Not an outright lie but not a whole truth, either.

“We had hoped that...” Robert trailed off.

“Robert, tell me what you’re thinking,” Molly said.

“This year seemed different. It started earlier, Mols. Ever since she finished her last round of summer exams. We encouraged her to spend her gap year abroad and she was enthusiastic. Then she went to you in London.”

“And now you’re worried something worse is going on?” Molly asked, a cold fear gnawing at her insides.

“She wouldn’t talk to us about what happened when she was seven. She’d go to the old weirdos in the village, but not us. And then she just wanted to leave. As quickly as she could. But it’s tomorrow night.”

“And her birthday the day after,” Molly said, her voice quiet. “I’m heading north. Now.”

“Molly...”

“Robbie, I found her. I think I can find her again if I need to.” She paused, not sure if she should mention her dreams of the man who told her how to cure the elf-sickness and then decided against it. “Just have some quilts on the sofa and I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” She hung up and then ran to her bedroom, pulling her carry-all out of the closet and tossing some clothing and unmentionables before heading into the loo for toiletries.

Somehow, she had the feeling that as bad as previous years had been, this year was about to get _much_ worse for her niece...and perhaps herself as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Normally she was a strict follower of the speed limits set in all the areas where she was driving this day, but she needed to hurry and quite literally pushed her car to the absolute maximum. And there were no wayward pedestrians in her way, no cars on the road...it was almost as if her path to the village was cleared of any obstructions the minute she decided to go.

She had tried to remember everything she had ever learned of the lore of elves, as well as everything she had made it a point to learn the first year after Katie had been gone and then found in the clearing. She always carried cold iron on her now, both in the umbrella she nearly always carried with her as well as in iron flakes that she carried in a salt shaker in her purse, with a special easily flipped up top. While she wasn’t able to wear jewelry in the morgue she always made sure she had a necklace and bracelet on of iron the minute she left her post, and on the bracelet and necklace were mounted certain stones of protection. She’d been in the process of having a matching set made for Katie, but…

 _No need to think of that now,_ Molly thought as she absently touched her wrist and fingered the quartz. That was always the stone she was drawn to, a pale milky quartz the color of the elf’s skin, with tinges of pink hereabouts. It reminded her of him, and she had felt it was important to have the chunk of quartz split and put into both the necklace and the bracelet.

She dashed up to the door of her brother’s home and found no one was there. Had they gone to look for Katie already? She could see quilts on the sofa through the window because the door was locked. That was also unusual; in this village, most people kept their doors unlocked.

“Robbie!” she called out.

“The village is under elf-sleep.”

 _That voice_. Though it had been nearly ten years since she’d heard it, it struck her to the core that it was _him_ , faint as it was. She turned and saw him standing there in front of her, his fine clothing more immaculate than last time, but on both of his hands she could see dark marks. 

“You were hurt with cold iron that night,” she said, her voice soft as she approached him.

The elf nodded slowly. “I am irreparably marked,” he said quietly, slowly moving his left sleeve up with his right hand. Ugly pink marks marred his skin. “My brother applied what healing poultices he could, and magick as well, so I have healed somewhat on the outside but I shall always bear the marks of _his_ treachery.”

“Has this...”

“Dark elf. Unseelie, I think you humans call them. We have...other...terms.”

“Has he taken my niece again?”

“He plans to, but she has not arrived in the village yet. He set the whole village to sleep but you, wearing your cold iron and blessed stones...” He reached over and gently touched the quartz at her neck, avoiding the iron entirely. “You can pass unscathed through his dark magick.”

“Where is she?” 

“That, I do not know. I just know he has not claimed her yet.” He offered Molly his hand. “Keep your cold iron close, Margaret. Dress yourself in our finery and let no one else lay hands on you. Drink only what I direct you to. Eat only what I give you. And when this is over, you may come back to the land of humans.”

She nodded slowly, giving him her hand that did not bear a bracelet. She had expected him to feel cold but all except the marks were quite warm. The places where he was marked were as cold as the handle of her umbrella, almost as cold as ice. But before she took a step where he was leading, she had a question for him. “What is your name?”

“It is unpronounceable by a human tongue,” he said. “But you may call me Sherlock if it suits.”

“It does,” she said with a nod, curling her fingers around his hand. And with that, they began to move towards the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

In her dreams of Sherlock, she had caught brief glimpses of the place where he lived, but she was completely unprepared for how _majestic_ it was. She was having so much trouble taking in what she saw and there were a million questions she had but Sherlock was ushering her into a small palace and into an antechamber…

...that looked remarkably like her bedroom at home. “You dreamed of me too,” she said softly, turning to look at him.

He nodded. “Yes.” He went to what would have been her closet and opened it. Inside were _not_ the clothes she would normally wear, but instead gowns that looked like they had been made from beams of sunlight and the night sky at all the various shades of sunset. “To blend in while you’re here.”

“They’ll know I’m human,” she pointed out. “And I have on cold iron.”

“You are not the only human in the realm,” Sherlock said with a small smile. “And not the only one willingly wearing cold iron. But you are my most treasured guest, and...”

She paused in touching the softest fur trim she had ever felt and looked at him. “There’s more to this, isn’t there?”

“My brother is King of the fae,” Sherlock said slowly. "He reigned ten years longer than he had planned to make sure I was as healthy and whole as could be to keep our half-brother from usurping him. But it is time for him to go to the resting fields and live his life there with his chosen human. Things are different in our reality than they are as humans talk of us. Though my skin is marred, it is not held against me as they are viewed as brands of honor in keeping him from taking the throne.”

“Your half-brother,” Molly said.

“He is half human, whose mother raised him in the Unseelie Court. Our father had a...dalliance, as did our mother. I am the result of her dalliance. As such, my half-brother and I have equal claim to the throne, depending on who is wed first.”

Molly let go of the fur trim and looked at him. “He tried to take my niece for a child bride? That’s horrible.”

“But now she is, according to legal custom, almost at the age of consent. In two nights, she will be an adult and he can take her. Should I marry first, I can take command of the throne. You need not stay; there are ways for you to return to the human world and live your life there, under my protection. But if I am wed I can block my half-brother from his marriage attempts and banish him back to the Unseelie Court.”

“Because you’re a full-blooded elf, and he isn't,” Molly said slowly, moving to the bed to sit down.

Sherlock nodded. “My protection of you will extend to your kin, every generation down the line. They will be blessed, should you choose to stay by my side or not. But...I need your help.”

She nodded, then reached up and beckoned him closer. There was so much at stake, and part of her felt that she could be making a foolish mistake, but what did she honestly have in London? Her job, yes, and a few acquaintances, but Katie was the most important thing in her life right now and this would keep her safe. He stood before her and she placed her hands in his, her fingers ghosting over his palms. “I’ll marry you. But under one condition.”

“Yes?” he said, looking at their hands.

“We work on lifting the elf-sleep as soon as Katie arrives and we can send her back, and that half-brother of yours is banished and can never touch my family again. For that, I will stay as long as you need me to.”

“Margaret...” he said softly. Then he bowed his head. “Thank you. I will ensure you do not regret your decision.”

She nodded and curled her fingers around his, sealing the pact. There need not be a ring or any of that. She had made her decision and while she would still follow his rules...this was her life now.

She hoped she had made the right choice.


End file.
